Last week I lent a copy of The New Testament Made Harder to another Sunday school teacher in my ward. I pointed out that the book follows the lessons from the Gospel Doctrine Sunday school manual. He thumbed through the book for a second and said, “Hey, The New Testament Made Harder is going to make my lesson prep so much easier!”We both laughed, but I knew he was right. The quality of the lessons I teach depends largely on how well I prepare during my own personal scripture study. My lessons go even better when students come prepared having already spent time thinking about the scriptures assigned for the week. James E. Faulconer’s entire MADE HARDER series was written to spur deeper and more focused engagement with Latter-day Saint scriptures.
Unlike most scripture commentaries with their useful chapter synopses, timelines, and definitions, The New Testament Made Harder consists almost entirely of challenging questions (see the free sample below). Faulconer is a professor of philosophy and a life-long student of the scriptures. He knows that the questions we bring to the text determine the answers we can discover, and can spark even more discoveries as the scriptures begin to question us. That’s how this book makes reading “harder”—by priming your pondering pump with insightful study questions.
So much of modern life is geared toward finding faster and easier ways to do the same old things. The New Testament Made Harder proves that making things easier doesn’t always make them better. It is the perfect tool to improve your personal and family scripture study, sacrament meeting talks, or Sunday School lessons. Are you up to the challenge?
You can read more about the MADE HARDER series here.
Free Sample
CLICK HERE to download Faulconer’s notes on Lesson 17 of the New Testament Gospel Doctrine Manual.
Purchase
The New Testament Made Harder is available now on Amazon.
Also available for Kindle and other digital book providers including Nook and iBooks.